Eich schwieger



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CARL THEODOR HEINRICH SCHVVIEGER, OF BERLIN, GERMANY, ASSIGNOR TO SIEMENS & HALSKE, OF SAME PLACE.

CONDUIT FOR ELECTRIC RAILWAYS.

SPEOIFICATION'fOrming part of Letters Patent No. 478,026, dated June 28, 1892.

Application filed September 16, 1891. SarialNo. 405,929- (No model.) Patentedin Austria-Hungary October 22, 1888. No. 2,722

and No. 2,723-

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, CARL THEODOR HEIN- RICH SOHWIEGER, a subject of the King of Prussia, German Emperor, residing at Berlin,

Prnssia, in the German Empire, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Electrical Railroading with Underground Supply of Current, (for which I have obtained a patent in Austria-Hungary October 22, 1888, No. Tom. 38, Fol. XXII, 2,722/2,723;) and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the'invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which itappertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to electric railways of the type in which the current employed for operating the motors is carried underground in a suitable subway or conduit and the ourrent conveyed to the motors through the medium of a traveling contact-making device.

My invention relates to various details of construction of the railway and subway and to the method and device employed for conveying the current transmitted by the conductors in the subway to and from the motors upon the cars.

In the accompanying drawings, which illustrate my invention, similar letters of refer- 0 once indicate like parts.

The object of my invention is a construction of electric railway which, while provided with a subway in which are placed the conductors to and from the source of energy and which subway communicates with the streetsurface through a slot, will not materially differ, so far as breaking up the surface of the street. is concerned, from that of an ordinary street-railway; further, to so arrange electrical conductors under the slot that dirt, which finds ingress into the subway through the slot will not lodge on them; also, to provide means for conveying the current transmitted by the conductors in the subway to and from the motor upon the car without the employment of rigid connections between the current-collector in the subway and the car or motor moving upon rails upon the streetsurface.

Figure 1 is a view in elevation of asubway having a centrally-disposed slot. Fig. 2 is a transverse section taken on the line a; w of Fig. 3, showing a subway with aslot disposed at the side close to one of the rails upon which the motor travels. Fig. 3 is a transverse longitudinal section on the line y y of Fig. 2. Fig. 4isa vertically-longitudinal section of the construction shown in Fig. 2.

In the drawings, A and A indicate the bearing-rails upon which the motors B travel.

0 represents the subway, of which two forms are shown. That in Fig. 1 consists of a series of angle-iron beams bolted together and having a slot D, which communicates with the street-surface and disposedmidway between the bearing-rails A and A.v

In Fig. 2 a special form of construction is shown. In this figure the subway is located at the side of thetrack under the bearingrail A, and communicates with the street-sur- 7o face through the slot D, formed between the bearing-rail A and auxiliary rail A In Fig. 1 both of the bearing-rails A and A are mounted upon the subway construction.

In Fig. 2 the bearing-rail A and auxiliary rail A are mounted upon the subway construction, and the bearing-rail A upon a longitudinal sleeper.

I do not limit myself in this specification to any special construction of subway or subway and track, as many ditferent forms may be used.

Located within the subway are the two conductors E and F, preferably so shaped as to hold between them and support amovable 8 5 contact making device. The conductors shown in the drawings are formed in the shape of two Vs turned on their sides with their openings facing each other. The current from the source of energy is transmitted by 0 one of these conductors-as, for instance, the conductor E-and returns to the source of energy by the opposite conductor F. The conductors E and F are supported within the subway by means of the insulators G, which 5 are suitably attached to the subway-frame.

Supported by and in electrical contact'with the conductors E and F is a traveling eontact-making device H, by means of which the current from one of the conductors is carried to the motor and from the motor back to the opposite conductor. The traveling contactmaking device consists of a body portion carrying two contact-plates I and J insulated from each other and from the body-portion,-in which they are held in any suitable manner. The contact-plates I and J are respectively electrically connected to the motors through the insulated conductors K and L, which conductors are inclosed within a tubing M, which passes through the slot in the subway. The inclosing pipe M may be a rigid pipe or tubing for a short distance above the street-surface of the slot D, and from that point to the car and motor a flexible pipe maybe used, or a pipe flexible throughout its length may be used to connect the contact-making device H to the car and motor.

The contact-making device II is mechanically connected to the car by means of the ropes N and 0, respectively, connected to opposite ends of theeontact-making device and the body of the car. Thus when the energy conveyed by the conductors E and F in the subway is transmitted through the motor upon the car, motion of the car will result and tension will be made either upon the ropes N or 0, depending upon the direction of travel of the car, and the contact-making device H will be drawn after the car.

The construction shown in the drawings has been found to give good results. The

shape of the conductors E and F effectually prevents the accumulation of any' dirt thereon, and being suitably insulated from the body of the subway very little loss of electrical energy is experienced.

Having thus described my invention, I claim 1. In an electrical railway, the combination, with a subway provided withaslot communicating with the street-surface, of two condoctors of V-shaped cross-section openingoppositely to one another in the same horizontal plane beneath said slot, and a traveling contact-making device electrically connected to the motor upon the car, the same having corresponding V-shaped bearing-surfaces fitting cross-sectionally throughout the contactsurfaces of the said conductors adapted to and contact-makin g device, whereby the contact-making device is moved in a constant horizontal plane independent of the car, for the purpose described.

In testimony whereof I have aflixed my signature in presence of two Witnesses.

CARL TIIEODOR HEINRICH SCHWIEGER.

\Vitnesses:

GUSTAV STENGEL, MAX WAGNER. 

